Blog Parties

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Favorite Things in My Town Link Party

Did someone say party? I love to party and Centsational Girl is hosting a "Favorite Things in My Town" link party. So you know I have to party along.

Problem is, I totally forgot about Kate's party. Plus you already know how I procrastinate stuff. So don't tell anyone, but I'm regifting my post so that I can party too.

I call this, the tale of 3 cities. Let me do some explaining. I live in southern California in the City of Menifee. When we first moved here 6 years ago & bought our house, the tax records show that we live in Romoland, CA. But our mailing address was Sun City, CA (and still is). But now this area officially became a city called Menifee on 10/01/08. So technically I can say that I live in 3 cities.

Now for some boring information on where I live:

The City of Menifee is located in southwestern Riverside County approximately 30 miles southeast of the City of Riverside. We are about 90 miles north of San Diego & about 90 miles east of Los Angeles. Within an hour or so I can be at the beach, the mountains or the desert.

The city of Menifee encompasses approximately 50 square miles with an overall population of approximately 60,000. But has the look and feel of a small town.

If you haven't fallen asleep already, it's time for the photo part of our tour. First we have a photo of one of the churches in our city. Along with a huge American flag that flies over the local KFC/Taco Bell. And a C-17 airplane. March Air Reserve Base is located about 15 miles north of us. So we get these airplanes flying over our city every day.

You can click on any photo to enlarge

Next I will take you to what used to be down town Sun City. Now to live down town you have to be 55 or older. Those of us under the age of 55 have to live on the outskirts of town.

Here is the price of gas 6/30/09 at the local Chevron station, $2.99 a gallon. Right now, gas at this same station is $3.78. And here is the local thrift store that I love to shop at. I love a thrift store where you can still find things for less than a buck. My favorite grocery store-Stater Brothers and finally the shopping area down town. Up until last November 2008 this was the only place we could shop locally. If we wanted to go to Walmart or a Home Depot, we had to drive about 15 minutes in any direction to find one.

More photos of down town Sun City. I love how the local seniors keep active at the local country club playing either shuffleboard or lawn bowling. Next we have a funny swan shaped boat sitting in someones driveway. Since this is a senior community, there must be some golf courses. I wish I could have gotten a photo of one of the many golf carts that drive around town.

If we move south & east of down town Sun City we are in the area that was originally Menifee. The high school is called Paloma Valley High School. This is where my son graduated back in 2009. We also have a Junior College in town. The original Mt San Jacinto College campus is in San Jacinto, CA near Hemet. But the 2nd campus is located here in Menifee. It is small, but cute. The 2 buildings shown are at the Jr College.
Do you like to shop? Well I do. And we finally have a local shopping center. It's called Countryside Marketplace. Opened up a couple of years ago. And the best part? It's only 2 miles from my house!!! I don't have to drive to another city to shop. I love this shopping center. It has a TJMaxx, Michael's, Super Target, Kohl's & Lowe's. Now if only we could get a Walmart closer than 20 minutes away, I would be in heaven. Only a couple of more years and I will have a Walmart within 4 miles of my house. Can't wait.

And we finally have some good places to eat. And what is the number one place you want to eat if you come to California? Why In-N-Out of course. They have the best hamburgers. If you ever come to California, you must eat there. Another good place to eat is Red Robin restaurant. I love their fries!!! I just got back from eating my free birthday burger from Red Robin. I didn't like Chipotle which really surprised me since I love Mexican food. But I love Panda Express. Subway is always good too, but we already had a Subway in down town Sun City. I still haven't tried the Breakfast Club of Menifee but I hear it is really good.
We can't forget our local heroes, the hunky firemen and police. We got our own police once we officially became a city. And we do have a local hospital. But there are rumors that you don't want to go there in an emergency. You might end up sicker or worse yet, dead.

How about seeing some of the houses in our area. We have different types here depending on the area of town you live in & how old the house is. Here we have a new house in my area, a farm house & a typical California Ranch house in the countryside complete with horses (not pictured) and the typical 60's style house in down town Sun City. Did you notice no grass in the last house? Seniors don't like having to mow a lawn, so most of them have rocks instead of lawn. Which I guess is great now since we have a water shortage.

We do have a couple of apartment complexes in town & they are building a few more. I hope they don't build too many. The town I grew up in San Diego county was great until they built it up with apartments in the 70's & then everything went downhill. I don't want that to happen here. Next we have a typical California Mediterranean home, some manufactured homes and homes on the golf course. So you can see we have quite the variety of different style homes in our city.

And you can't visit southern California without seeing some palm trees.

Some more landscape photos. There are some man made lakes here in the city of Menifee. And there used to be orange groves everywhere. Now there is only a small area near the hospital. Lots of hills around us but not much grows there. So if we were to have a wild fire I'm not too worried as there isn't much to burn. And we do have some wild life. Saw this bunny tonight just up the street. And once we had a snake in our yard. We had a lovely sunset tonight.

And finally I will leave you with photos of my house. I have to warn you that our front yard needs lots of work. We have this huge willow tree that takes up most of our yard & hides the house. It grows so fast. Plus my son needs to mow the grass. We live in a Mediterranean style house. I wouldn't call it my dream home. I'd much rather live in a farm house or Victorian house. But not many of those here in southern California. So this one will do for now.

My back yard is much better. We spend all of our time back here. You can't live here without a pool as it gets hot, hot, hot in the summer. It's been in the triple digits for the past week. At least we don't get much humidity.

Well I hope that you enjoyed the tour of my current home town. If you ever get over this way, stop by & say "Hi". I'll even let you take a dip in my pool. Just bring your own towel.

3 comments:

Hi Kim, Is Menifee close to Temecula? I go through Temecula on my way to San Diego (Santee) to visit The Mr. when he dosen't come home for the weekend. Maybe I'll drop by and we can 'do lunch' sometime ;) Of course you are welcome to do the same if you come over the hill to the desert.

I have wondered about Sun City. Does it have anything to do with Del Webb Sun City? I hate to admit it but I am one of those 'over 55 persons' and I live in a Del Webb community in the desert.

I can't wait for you to get your Halloween stuff out! You did such a great job last year.

Kim, you live in a nice little community by the looks...at least you don't have to go to another town to do your shopping!Your back yard looks heavenly for those sweltering days. I am counting the days until it will finally cool off here in the midwest...today and tomorrow are to be around 105°, apparently Mother Nature hasn't bothered to check the calendar to see that it is now September!Have a great weekend.

My brother-in-law just got home from an LDS mission in Riverside--he spent time in Riverside, Menifee, Sun City, and a few other places. Thanks for the photos--it was fun to look at where he was (He didn't really take many photos--especially of the area he was in).

About Me

I love blogging as it lets me peek into the lives of other people.I love to see how others decorate their homes. So I may lurk on your blog to see what's up. I love to decorate, but I tend to dream more than to do. I hate cleaning, I'm not very organized, I hate to get rid of the things I love which tends to be almost everything I own & I'm am the world's best procrastinator. But somehow I manage to keep my household from falling apart & the health dept hasn't condemned our house, yet. Knock on wood!
I'm lucky to be married to a man who can do it all. Otherwise our house might just fall apart. We have 3 adult boys between us, 1 daughter in law & 1 grandson.